Annual Report 2000: Undergraduate School 1999-2000
Review by the Director
Role of the Undergraduate School
The Undergraduate School is run by a member of the academic staff serving as Director (currently Dr P.M.R. Howell), and more importantly by a full-time Assistant to the Director (Mrs Veronica Forbes) who manages the work of the School and its office on a day-to-day basis. The School organises the Department's teaching programme for the Geographical Tripos, including the timetabling and location of lectures, submission of coursework, arrangements for visiting lecturers, production of the course guide, the running of examination business, assessment of courses and lecturers, and producing the agenda and minutes for a range of committee meetings. It should be noted that Mrs Forbes in the course of these duties has become responsible for teaching that falls outside the remit of the Undergraduate School, for instance in the timetabling of M.Phil. teaching and the arrangements for all external lecturers. This responsibility has increased significantly in the last year, and it is hoped that other administrative arrangements will eventually reduce the burden on the Assistant to the Director.
One of the major responsibilities outside the day-to-day running of undergraduate teaching is the preparation of the following year's teaching programme, which is discussed and approved by the academic staff an the annual Teaching Meeting, chaired by the Director during the Easter Term. Again, this meeting is not restricted to Undergraduate School business; M.Phil. teaching is also considered and approved.
There is also an Undergraduate School Committee which serves as a link between staff and students, and holds meetings every term. The undergraduate representation on this committee was enlarged in 1997 to a total of five members. One person represents each year group (Part IA, Part IB, Part II), one person is the Faculty Board student representative, and one is a committee member of the Cambridge University Geographical Society.
Changes in the Tripos
Dr Howell took over as Director of the Undergraduate School at the beginning of 1998, at a stage when changes to the structure of the Geographical Tripos agreed in previous years were being put into place. The major change was the streamlining of the Part II teaching programme, reducing the number of papers offered to 15, from which students would take four rather than five papers; the final-year dissertation being correspondingly more important was at the same time increased to a minimum of 8,000 and a maximum of 10,000 words. This year these changes have become part of the routine functioning of the Undergraduate School, but a series of further changes have been introduced. The major innovation has been in the direction of broadening the assessment procedures at Part II, with the introduction of submitted work for selected courses. Five courses have been run on this system this year, inviting 4000 word submitted essays or equivalent course work. This goes some way to meeting external preference for a diversity of assessment procedures. Further reforms remain on schedule, including the move at Part IB to a choice of four papers from two groups of five papers, roughly representing human and physical/environmental grouping, plus the submitted essay.
As far as the normal running of the Tripos goes, examination statistics reveal that in 2000 two-thirds of students continue to be placed in the Upper Second Class across the three years, with Lower Seconds declining from 30% at Part IA to 20% at Part II. Since the Third Class has almost fallen into disuse this means that the Firsts rise from roughly 5% to roughly 15%. This pattern is becoming very consistent from year to year. The gender breakdown also shows a consistency, with women improving their share of the higher examination classes as they proceed from one year to the next, but this year women still fell short of equivalence with their male peers. Given that the trend is towards more female students than male, this disparity, marginal as it is, requires careful monitoring.
Residential field classes
The commitment of the Undergraduate School to field teaching remains strong, with project work carried out on the Part IB field classes firmly established as part of that year's assessment process. Three week-long residential field classes have been run in the Mediterranean at Easter for several years, with participation in one of these classes compulsory for Part IB students; all students are offered via lectures an introduction to the geography of the Mediterranean before the field classes begin. These classes are general rather than specific, covering a range of topics in physical and human geography, and serve a significant purpose in introducing students to methodologies and techniques that will be helpful to them in carrying out their final-year dissertation. The field classes since 1995 have been as follows:
|
Vacation/Year |
1 |
2 |
3 |
| Easter vacation 1995 | Algarve | Crete | Netherlands |
| Easter vacation 1996 | Algarve | Crete | Mallorca |
| Easter vacation 1997 | Aeolian islands, Italy | Malta | S.E. Spain |
| Easter vacation 1998 | Algarve | Crete | Mallorca |
| Easter vacation 1999 | Aeolian islands, Italy | Crete | Malta |
| Easter vacation 2000 | Algarve | Mallorca | S.E. Spain |
In addition it was also possible to run a specialist field class to Dublin for a small group of students, and its success means that the field class will be repeated in the future. Overall the enthusiasm of students for these classes remains high, although the burden for the teaching staff is considerable, and very unevenly distributed: the classes rely therefore very heavily on the commitment and commitments of a section of the teaching staff, which certainly cannot be taken for granted.
The Part II dissertation
The compulsory dissertation is, like residential fieldwork, a very long-established feature of the Geographical Tripos, and as has been explained above has become even more important in the assessment of Part II students. The dissertation, unsupervised after initial discussion with Directors of Studies and other members of the teaching staff, offers students the opportunity to carry out an independent investigation based on geographical ideas, methods, and technical skills acquired during the course of the Tripos. As part of its teaching on research design, the Department offers students lectures on the design of dissertations and research methods in key areas of the discipline, but the Department otherwise imposes very little constraint on either the topic chosen or the location of the study, other than restrictions that are felt to be desirable on grounds of the intellectual merits of the project, its feasibility, logistics, and questions of safety. Students prepare their proposal for submission to their Directors of Study, and the Head of Department, at the end of the Lent term; they are also required to submit an assessment of the risks involved in carrying out their research.
Undergraduates in recent years have chosen a wide variety of topics and locates for their dissertations, with about an even split between UK and overseas destinations. For the latter a rough breakdown can be presented, with 8 students tackling projects in Europe, 6 in North America, 9 in Asia, 4 in Africa, 3 in Israel/Palestine, 2 in the West Indies, 1 in South America and 1 in Australia. For comparison the analysis for the four years from 1994-97 is 55% working outside the UK, 12% in Europe, 11% in North America, and 30% travelling to less developed and developing countries.
Teaching is provided in the first two years of the Tripos which prepares students for the dissertation by helping them to acquire skills in research design, data analysis and report presentation, including IT skills and computing. In addition, as has been stated above, the Part IB field classes provide further hands-on training. The dissertation remains unsupervised, however, a position which is accepted as desirable by both the teaching staff and undergraduates, given that unlike postgraduates doing dissertations undergraduates compete against each other directly. In any event, the standard of dissertations is generally very high, with good quality in a wide range of topics and subject areas, with the best dissertations being quite outstanding, and typically recognized outside the Department. This year the undergraduates were outstandingly successful, with three students awarded national prizes for their dissertation: Katharine Moss of Emmanuel College for her dissertation entitled “Schooling and striving for success: an investigation into the aspirations of girls attending high school in rural South India”; Hannah Weston of Selwyn College for her dissertation entitled “The presentation of Empire in mid-nineteenth century juvenile fiction”; Angela Morris of Downing College for her dissertation entitled “Spatial and temporal variation in surface albedo and roughness of Midre-Lovenbreen, Spitsberge and implications for surface melt rates.” Additionally, Sarah Howitt of Sidney Sussex College was a runner-up for her dissertation entitled “Blind Space - understanding space without sight”.
The success of these students, recognized nationally, is a tribute to the exceptional talents of the individuals concerned, but the Department can take a particular pride in preparing these students for outstanding original research. Overall, the undergraduate teaching at Cambridge is a demonstrably successful programme, producing impressive results across the board. External examiners continue to praise the work of the Undergraduate School, in the substance and delivery of its teaching, and in its efficiency in administration.
Dr P.M.R. Howell,
Director of the Undergraduate School
Geographical Tripos Statistics 1999-2000
Distribution of Tripos Results by Class
|
Part |
Class |
2000 |
1999 |
1998 |
1997 |
1996 |
1995 |
||||||
|
IA |
I |
4 |
4.5% |
7 |
7.9% |
6 |
7.7% |
6 |
7% |
5 |
5% |
3 |
3% |
|
2.1 |
59 |
65.5% |
47 |
52.8% |
51 |
65.4% |
48 |
57% |
53 |
58% |
56 |
58% |
|
|
2.2 |
27 |
30% |
33 |
37.1% |
21 |
26.9% |
30 |
36% |
34 |
37% |
36 |
37% |
|
|
3 |
0 |
0% |
2 |
2.2% |
0 |
0% |
0 |
0% |
0 |
0% |
2 |
2% |
|
|
Ordinary |
0 |
0% |
0 |
0% |
0 |
0% |
0 |
0% |
0 |
0% |
0 |
0% |
|
|
Total |
90 |
89 |
78 |
84 |
92 |
97 |
|||||||
|
1B |
I |
12 |
14% |
10 |
14% |
10 |
12% |
10 |
11% |
4 |
4% |
5 |
6% |
|
2.1 |
55 |
62% |
52 |
71% |
59 |
70.2% |
57 |
63% |
60 |
61% |
59 |
68% |
|
|
2.2 |
20 |
23% |
11 |
15% |
15 |
17.8% |
21 |
23% |
31 |
32% |
23 |
26% |
|
|
3 |
1 |
1% |
0 |
0% |
0 |
0% |
2 |
2% |
3 |
3% |
0 |
0% |
|
|
Ordinary |
0 |
0% |
0 |
0% |
0 |
0% |
0 |
0% |
0 |
0% |
0 |
0% |
|
|
Total |
88 |
|
73 |
|
84 |
|
90 |
|
98 |
|
87 |
|
|
|
II |
1 |
11 |
14% |
11 |
13% |
20 |
22% |
15 |
15% |
12 |
14% |
11 |
13% |
|
2.1 |
54 |
67% |
57 |
68% |
50 |
55% |
64 |
63% |
57 |
65% |
56 |
68% |
|
|
2.2 |
15 |
19% |
16 |
19% |
20 |
22% |
20 |
20% |
16 |
18% |
16 |
19% |
|
|
3 |
0 |
0% |
0 |
0% |
0 |
0% |
2 |
2% |
3 |
3% |
0 |
0% |
|
|
Ordinary |
0 |
0% |
0 |
0% |
1 |
1% |
0 |
0% |
0 |
0% |
0 |
0% |
|
|
Total |
80 |
|
84 |
|
91 |
|
101 |
|
88 |
|
83 |
|
|
Gender Breakdown of Tripos Results 2000
|
|
1 |
2.1 |
2.2 |
3 |
|||||
|
PART IA |
Female [50] |
1 |
2% |
33 |
66% |
16 |
32% |
0 |
0% |
Male [40] |
3 |
7.5% |
26 |
65% |
11 |
27.5% |
0 |
0% |
|
Total [90] |
4 |
4.5% |
59 |
65.5% |
27 |
30% |
0 |
0% |
|
|
PART IB |
Female [38] |
2 |
5% |
27 |
71% |
9 |
24% |
0 |
0% |
Male [50] |
10 |
20% |
28 |
56% |
11 |
22% |
1 |
2% |
|
Total [88] |
12 |
14% |
55 |
62% |
20 |
23% |
1 |
1% |
|
|
PART II |
Female [52] |
6 |
12% |
34 |
65% |
12 |
23% |
0 |
0% |
Male [28] |
5 |
18% |
20 |
71% |
3 |
11% |
0 |
0% |
|
Total [80] |
11 |
14% |
54 |
67% |
15 |
19% |
0 |
0% |
|